Milestone To Nowhere... & Prayer Request

Preparing for to teach a Bible lesson or to give a lecture obsesses me.

Monday I dropped all else to prepare for the local history presentation at the library. I cleaned the antique ax head, the Civil War sword, the big penny, the ox shoe, all the stuff I use in my hands-on lecture.

I practiced burning tea bags.

I re-checked facts and dates and quotes.

I rehearsed a sort of Power Point presentation to illustrate my talk.

I shaved.

I chose a shirt which would provide a contrasting background to any object I’d hold in my hands so people would see the item clearly.

Ginny took two hours off work to drive me and all my stuff to the library in time to set up the room and practice with computer/projector system which shows websites on a giant screen.

In making local history come alive I emphasize tales of heroism, tales of romance, courage and adventure. Pirates and Indians. Plagues and conflagrations. Conquest of wilderness and strength of character. Clearing raw wilderness and overcoming alligators. Feats of endurance and trials of faith.

So, how did my lecture go last night?

Eight people showed up.

Three of them left early.

Pissing against the wind.

Another milestone on my road to nowhere….

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The above describes the typical pattern of obsession, elation and depression I go through every time I teach a lesson or deliver a lecture. I’ve been through this painful pattern hundreds of times over the years.

It’s my way of doing things whether the audience is eight people or 80 or 8,000, whether I’m teaching in a tiny class room, on the street, or during an interview on tv.

Obsession with preparation, elation during the presentation, dark depression immediately afterwards -- that's the pattern.

I suspect that the Holy Spirit applies this pattern to my speaking, and to my writing books, to protect my vain soul for getting too fat headed because I do so love the spot light and the smallest sign of success and acceptance makes me giddy with pride.

I expect so much of me.

All this reminds me to stay faithful whether I’m successful or not.

It reminds me to live for Him, not them.

It encourages me to be humble.

I hate being humble.

Damn shame that I can’t learn humility without being humiliated.

I still say that someday I’ll write another book entitled, THE WORLD’S GREATEST BOOK ON HUMILITY.

I’m getting giddy. Thus endeth today’s lesson.

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E-Mail Prayer Request:

An E-mail this morning and a Google news search for trial, Christian, Afghanistan provides me with fuel for prayer.

According to a Chicago Tribune news report, after a one-day trial, a judge in Kubul sentenced Abdul Rahman to be shot for being a Christian. The prisoner will be granted a stay of execution if he renounces Christ and reverts to islam.

“Now, in a major test of Afghanistan's fledgling court system,” The Tribune says, “Rahman, 42, faces the death penalty for abandoning Islam for Christianity. Prosecutors say he should die. So do his family, his jailers, even the judge. Rahman has no lawyer. Jail officials refused to let anyone see Rahman on Monday…

"We will cut him into little pieces," said Hosnia Wafayosofi, who works at the jail. "There's no need to see him."

“We are Muslim, our fathers were Muslim, our grandfathers were Muslim," said Abdul Manan, Rahman's father, who is 75. "This is an Islamic country. Imagine if your son told a police commander, also a Muslim, that he is a Christian. How would this affect you? It's very difficult for us."

"He is my son," said Manan, crying. "But if a son does not care about the dignity of his family, the dignity of his father, God can take him away. You cannot make anything out of such a son. He is useless."

The link to this news story is http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/3737107.html

More information can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4823874.stm